Andrew Jaffe: Leaves on the Line

I spent over an hour this afternoon in full green consumerist frenzy, celebrating the opening (i.e., shopping at) the new London branch of the Whole Foods supermarket chain. Three floors of good food, eco-friendly (more or less; see below), tasty, not at all cheap, luckily located en route from work to home. And noticeably more Americans in one place than I’ve ever encountered here in the UK!

And yet. Whole Foods may pay their staff well, but they’re an anti-union shop. They are organic and sustainable, but it’s unlikely to be good news for local small butchers and groceries. Plenty of the items on their shelves certainly amassed quite a few carbon miles getting to central London. But those heirloom tomatoes — British! — tasted really winderful in the frittata I cooked once I made it home…

I was travelling through Schiphol airport in Amsterdam today (more later on the various reasons why) when I was delighted to see the Sunday New York Times on sale at the airport news-stand… until they tried to charge me €14.50 (about $20 or £10). It’s still the best paper in the world (especially on Sunday), but the 400% markup seems a bit steep (not to mention encouraging the waste of transporting these newspapers thousands of miles across the world).

In honor of the Summer solstice (and Gaia herself) we Londoners are being encouraged to shut off our lights for an hour at 9pm tonight. Even Picadilly Circus will be dark, for the first time since World War II.

Even if it’s just a PR campaign, take advantage: go outside and look at the stars.